THE GOLDEN WEDDING CELEBRATION

Life is the supreme good and the wisdom of all the ages has considered length of days as the crowing symbol of Divine favor. “And thy days shall be long” is the most cherished promise of all scriptures. It will be understood, then, that the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of a man and a woman is justly entitled to the universal interest it is accorded all around the world.
This memorable event took place on the afternoon of October 2nd, 1911, at the Cabanne Avenue home, in St. Louis. The entire family was present, including sons, daughters, daughters and sons-in-laws and eighteen grandchildren.

Relatives and old friends were invited at four o’clock in the afternoon. The guests gathered in the dining room leaving the front room vacant for the family. These two rooms were gorgeously decorated with many beautiful golden flowers, the offerings of friends and relatives. A stringed orchestra played old-fashioned airs in the halls. When the guests were assembled a march was played while the members of the family who had gathered upstairs marched down into the living room, which was divided from the dining room by a golden ribbon. Mary and Robert Morton; Bell and Saunders Norvell; Nina and Percy Werner, Guadeloupe and Edmund Orville Matthews, Elvira and Leonard Matthews, Jr., Jane and Claude Levering Matthews, Lucy and Will Matthews entered the room in the order in which I have written their names. They arranged themselves on opposite sides of the room leaving a wide space so that the guests could look through the room to a dais that was built across the front windows. Then the grandchildren came in, walking two and two, the eldest first and the little ones last. The smallest children carried small old-fashioned bouquets with lace paper holders. The children arranged themselves in front of their parents, being careful to leave a space through with the guests could see the dais.

The grandchildren present were Charles Morton and his wife Reba; Stratford L. and his wife Anna, and Marjorie, Leonard, Mary, Robert and Elizabeth Morton; Lucy, Edward, Mary and Isabel Norvell; Howard, Dorothy, Percy, Courtney, Matthews and Norvell Werner; Rives, Jane and Claudia Matthews. Claudia was a bright year old baby in the nurse’s arms. She sang whenever the orchestra played.

At the side of the dais your Great Aunt, Johanna Levering, was seated, and at the other side your Aunt Flora Gamble.